20 



The Florists^ Review 



January 2, 1919. 



Eatabllahed, 1897. by G. L. GRANT. 



Pabllshed every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



620-660 OaxtoD Building, 



606 South Dearborn St., Oblcairo. 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



Re^stered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the pcst-ofBce at Chi- 

 cago, 111., under the Act of March 

 8 1879. 



Subscription price, IIJSO a year. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Europe, $3.00. 



Advertising rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad> 

 vertlsing accepted. 



tl 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to guarantee the in- 

 sertion, discontinuance or alteration of 

 any advertisement unless instructions 

 are received 



BY 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



America could grow its own narcissus 

 bulbs easier than its own bay trees. 



Practically all government war re- 

 strictions were withdrawn January 1. 



It will be a long time before the pro- 

 duction of plants of most kinds again 

 catches up with the demand. 



A GENERAL balancing of accounts now 

 is in order. There is no sense in paying 

 income taxes on uncollectable accounts 

 included as profits. 



The boys are coming home by scores 

 and each one finds his old job waiting 

 for him. The trade still is short-handed, 

 particularly in the greenhouses. 



The average florist has no definite ob- 

 jective. Plan one. What are you after! 

 Where is it to be had? What is the way 

 to itf Are you on that road? Go to it. 



Those florists who are awaiting the 

 next special flower day should study the 

 ways of the marathon runner — he puts 

 his best efforts into every mile of the 

 course. 



Starting some palm seeds whenever 

 you can get them will be like buying war 

 savings stamps. In about five years you 

 are certain to cash in at a good profit. 

 In the meantime, you jirobably won't miss 

 the money. 



A YEAR ago we all had many more 

 troubles than we have now. In January 

 and February, 1918, most of us were 

 mighty glad we didn't freeze out yester- 

 day and hoped we wouldn't tomorrow. 

 Beyond that, there wasn 't much doing. 



President and Mrs. Wilson continue to 

 be the ambassadors of flowers to the 

 Peace Conference. Mrs. Wilson, through 

 her habitual use of orchids as corsages, 

 has become known to Europeans as ' ' the 

 orchid lady," news dispatches say, while 

 the President's progress through the Eu- 

 ropean capitals has been over flower- 

 strewn streets. 



Cannas, 4-inch, will be good property 

 in season. 



Now come the days when a reserve 

 supply of coal is worth all it cost. 



Five years from now, if the quaran- 

 tine lasts, a pair of bay trees will be a 

 curiosity. 



Don't miss the coal article in the 

 Heating Department of this issue. Un- 

 fortunately, it offers little hope of lower 

 l)rices for next season. 



Collections should be good this month. 

 If a florist can not buy after three 

 months of such business as that of the 

 last quarter of 1918, what is the reason? 



To each individual in the United States, 

 ^Yhether he was selling services or mer- 

 chandise, his own this year's Christmas 

 ])riees seemed fully justified. All others 

 were profiteering. 



In writing for the trade press one 

 must be literal, absolutely. If sarcasm 

 or humor are not blunt a contemporary 

 likely as not will fail to get the point 

 and waste a column over it. 



Don 't let your wish to produce the 

 largest possible quantity of spring bed- 

 ding stock cause you to lose sight of the 

 necessity of maintaining quality. While 

 fine prices are in prospect for good stuff, 

 poor quality will produce nothing but 

 dissatisfaction. 



Probably it is too much to ask of 

 liuman nature, but it will be far better to 

 charge the public fair prices and pay the 

 grower enough to enable him to hire the 

 men he needs; don't take advantage of 

 every opportunity to grind prices down; 

 let's see "how good, not how cheap" we 

 can do things in this trade. 



THE WINTER SEASON. 



Prospects for the winter season 

 promise a demand that will absorb 

 every item of stock the grower can 

 place upon the market. In fact, due to 

 war-time exigencies and consequent 

 limitation of production, the probabil- 

 ity is that at best the supply will fill 

 only a part of requirements. Prices 

 will be at the top notch and the mar- 

 ket steady. It therefore behooves the 

 grower to move his stock as rapidly as 

 it comes into season and utilize his 

 space for the growing of crops in rapid 

 rotation, in order to reap a rich harvest 

 in this time of unexampled activity for 

 the trade. Many growers realize the 

 importance of embracing the great op- 

 portunity like this: 



Tlip carnation stock advertised in the Classi- 

 fied section of The Review is entirely sold out 

 and we could have sold ten times as much. — 

 George Seubold, Huntingburg, Ind., December 

 20, 1918. 



Kindly discontinue our ad of scliizanthus, as 

 ■we had an order for the entire lot the day 

 The Review came out. — The Morris Floral Co., 

 Morris, 111., December 23, 1918. 



When you hear a man complain of 

 the cost of advertising you can be pret- 

 ty sure he spends a good bit of money 

 elsewhere than in The Review. 



CYCAS LEAVES SCARCE. 



Reports from Japan indicate that the 

 American trade will experience a big 

 shortage of cycas leaves this year. One 

 big shipper in Japan has advised Ameri- 

 can supply houses which prepare these 

 leaves for the florists' trade that there 

 is a great scarcity of leaves and that, 

 owinjg to European markets having ab- 



sorbed a large portion of the supply, 

 it has been impossible to ship to this 

 country the quantities that the orders 

 called for. 



The crops of cycas leaves are cut in 

 the autumn in Japan and some ship- 

 ments already received here are far 

 from the size expected. The new crop 

 will not be cut until the autumn of 1919, 

 meaning that the preparers will not be 

 able to supply leaves again, after their 

 present stock is exhausted, until early 

 in 1920. 



According to one manufacturer, the 

 supply now in this country will not last 

 long. 



GARDENERS' WAGES. 



The subject of gardeners' wages is up 

 for discussion, the wages of those who 

 work on private estates. 



M. C. Ebel, secretary of the National 

 Association of Gardeners, has written an 

 essay entitled "The Gardener and His 

 Recompense," which he has sent in 

 proof form to the secretaries of local 

 horticultural societies with the sugges- 

 tion that it be made the subject of dis- 

 cussion at the January meetings. 



The same mail brings a copy of 

 "Flower Lore," published by Maurice 

 Fuld, containing an article entitled 

 "The Underpaid Gardener." "You 

 must admit," writes Mr. Fuld, "that 

 it takes some courage to present this 

 article to my readers, but I feel that 

 it is timely and that it is really neces- 

 sary. My paper now goes into the homes 

 of about 6,000 of the most influential 

 garden owners and so it will bring this 

 matter home where it should be, but it 

 does not reach the gardener, and so I 

 would appreciate if you would give this 

 article wide publicity, and I am sure it 

 will redound to your credit as well." 



We will all agree that every good 

 gardener should have what his services 

 are worth to his employer and it is quite 

 possible gardeners would be more high- 

 ly appreciated if their services cost 

 more. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



Summing up the Christmas business, 

 it was much the largest this market ever 

 has known, accounted for by higher 

 average prices, as the quantity of stock 

 available did not equal that of other 

 years. The individual percentages of 

 increase vary widely, partly because 

 some growers had more or less stock than 

 others, and, with the commission men, 

 because there has been considerable 

 switching about among the consignors. 



Taking it as a whole, probably stock 

 matched up with orders as well as in 

 any other years; As a big shortage 

 had been foreseen, wholesalers had 

 been careful about booking orders and, 

 because prices were higher, retailers 

 had ordered conservatively. Nobody 

 had stock enough for all the orders he 

 might have taken, but many houses 

 filled about all the orders they took. 

 The market was a little easier after the 

 shipping orders were out, partly be- 

 cause December 24 was a wet, sloppy, 

 snowy day, but at no time did the mar- 

 ket have a surplus of anything except 

 stock of such poor quality as not to 

 meet the requirements of the gift de- 

 mand. Poor stock never is in request 

 at Christmas. There were many com- 

 plaints that stock had been "pickled" 



